basic reflections

Music Circle With Sabine Bundschu: Taketina, rhythms and singing

 

 She’s big, she’s bold, she’s beautiful and the combination of sounds which emerge from her drum and her full throated voice catapult you within seconds into a faraway universe where you want to stay as long as possible. As she launches the session in Pune, it seems to me that I’ve been waiting for this moment for ages. As a psychotherapist as well as a music lover I had been trying to get her over to India for over a couple of years, to work with her, to learn more about the processes she leads, which I had till then only read about – processes leading to greater awareness, to creativity, and stillness in the head, while invoking an unusual level of togetherness between people. After several ups and downs including a fiasco concerning her visa to India, our mission is completed and I find Sabine at my doorstep, greeting me cheerily, one cool, sunny February morning.

Now, as fourteen of us group around the hall where the workshop in Bombay is held, Sabine leads us through an elaborate ritual which goes by the name of Taketina, developed by Austrian musician and composer, Rheinhard Flatischler. What makes it a challenge is the fact that the brain is having to cope with actions at three different levels: the hands, the feet and the voice, each of which, when done correctly works indirectly with the other, to produce an overall effect of beauty and harmony.

Our first attempt unfortunately is anything but harmonious. Our concentrated efforts to keep in line, to follow what Sabine is saying, our struggle to not fall out of step only lead to a jumble of movements and noise. It’s such a torture in fact, that a few of the participants, not having got the point, begin to even question the relevance of what we’ve been doing all day. It is only after the session has wound up, that many from the group begin to get a glimmer of what the whole exercise is about. The second morning, surprisingly, participants report a variety of experiences from being taken aback by vivid dreams which they’ve had during the night in which forgotten events and relationships have surfaced, to deep feelings of peace and a restful sleep at the end of the day. A rare treat for most of Bombay’s nervy natives. The biggest surprise is that having digested our utter failure of the previous day and learned from it, the group is really able to work in sync, with the handclaps, the feet and our voices blending in with each other exactly the way they should.

Among the benefits which the learning and practice of Taketina lead to, we discover, are the ability to stay focused for longer periods as well as the ability to develop perception at multiple levels. “It’s not so much about getting it right,” Sabine keeps emphasizing whenever she sees us determinedly stomp around, stumbling over their own feet in an effort to be perfect. “It’s about harmony in the group, it’s about listening, about paying attention to what is being done and said. Sometimes, it is better to keep quiet and refrain from doing anything rather than making the wrong move.

“Most of all,” she adds, if you really want to get it right, you simply have to let go of the mind, of all the thoughts which normally clog it. You can’t focus on the steps and the hand movements and singing together when the brain is overactive and living somewhere in the past or future.” This is easily verifiable – it’s a great form of meditation!

Sabine with the school children

A whole new area opens out to us during the two day workshop through Sabine’s invitation to create new rhythms and sounds, some of which work while others don’t quite. But the accent being on experimentation, mostly everything  we do invokes heaps of laughter and a lot of fun.

For those of us who land up for the three day retreat organized by Basicindia at Timbaktu – the site of an NGO project two hours from Bangalore - the highlight is undoubtedly our getting together at night after dinner, under a crystal clear, starry  sky. Sabine’s drumming and singing to which we gladly lend our own raucous voices and drum beats, invoke a strangely primeval atmosphere, bringing back the feel of similar nights from the hoary past when our tribal ancestors must surely have gathered together over a fire, for a night of music and dancing to deepen the bonds with each other. Besides, Sabine has a riotous time with the kids, during her daily trips to the school at Timbaktu. The little ones simply fall in love with her and her music, and she claims that they have been able to pick up the music and rhythms astoundingly quickly –  much faster than we adults have been able to!

The challenge before us now is to take this work further in India and also to bring the lady back to India before too  long, for another round of experimenting, of learning and some good old fun.

Uma

 

 

 

 

 

The Seeds Of Life

If the seed of life within me

Were to die unborn?

If it were never to meet the fertile soil

Which it needs for its blossoming?

What if everything I hoped this life could be

Were to turn out a joke

And deadness the only real thing I felt?

 

Perhaps if I learnt to watch

The deadness and

To see its stifling hold on my mind

Watching with care and attention too

The fear which followed in its wake

Fear

Of my own betrayal of life

 

The watching might open a door

And behind this door might lie the fertile soil -

Caressed by wind and water -

Of love, which makes all things grow

In a magic moment deadness would

Turn to life and I would start to know myself

Uma

Where is Paradise?

From a note read out to the Turkish and Indian training groups which met for a workshop in Cappadocia in August 2011

Yesterday Efe, one of the participants in the Turkish training group, asked me a question. He said something like, how can you tell the difference between heaven and hell? It was a good question. I thought about it for a moment.

 What really is the difference between the two? For many people, heaven is a place where everything is beautiful and life unfolds smoothly. It always feels comfortable and warm. And hell of course, is the opposite. It’s the wrong place, wrong people, a place where we don’t like what is happening. Hell is actually the feeling, I don't want to be here. But there is another way of looking at paradise and hell.

 You can find paradise in the middle of chaos and pain and in the middle of hell too. This is what I experienced in a session during the workshop in Turkey. One minute I saw only hell around me, people were miserable, nobody seemed to be okay with themselves, the air seemed to burst with unmet expectations and I felt myself being pulled into the trap of disgust, disappointment and suffering. Then suddenly it hit me. This is how it is, right now. THIS is how it is. And what’s more, it's ok. I suddenly found myself smiling at the discovery. It didn’t have to be any other way. From one moment to the next I found myself, unbelievably, transported from hell to paradise. Through the simple step of having accepted things exactly the way they were.

Why is it necessary for us to take things the way they are and what exactly does it mean? It means, I found out, to be here and now, not somewhere else in time and thought. It means to make peace with yourself and others. And this acceptance creates a healing space around us. A space in which we ourselves can be seen and accepted as we are. All of us have in some way been hurt in our lives, been betrayed, wounded, let down. To become whole again, to become free of this pain needs the healing touch of acceptance. From ourselves first of all and of course when others also accept us it is beautiful.

The question which often arises then, is, can we together create this healing space between us in our lives? A space in which it becomes possible to let go, to drop our expectations of ourselves and each other, and to come into contact with the truth of the moment – good, bad or indifferent as it might be? Are we capable, are we ready to look at ourselves the way we are. Can I see my own competitiveness, my fears, my need to be special, or whatever it might be, and say to myself, “OK. This is the way I am.” Without defiance, without judging, without at first wanting to change anything. Can I look at these things with curiosity and interest and is it possible for me to show this same interest in others? Can I, through this simple step of being interested in seeing myself the way I am and in seeing others too the way they are, help to create a space for us to live in paradise, together? Because among other things, paradise is a place where it feels alive. A place where one is in a state of constant wonder. Where each moment has a new feel to it, a place touched by the breath of freshness. And only a real live interest in the truth and in “what is” can help to create this state.

However, one often comes across this misconception, that to accept means to be passive and resigned to our fate and to opt for the status quo. In actual fact it is the opposite that happens. Our refusal to accept the truth is what holds us in a state of permanent expectation and discontent. Inner acceptance dissolves the roadblock and brings about change. It brings about a certain clarity which makes action possible. And not just action which comes out of fear or defensiveness the way we are acquainted with it, but action which is intelligent and in the interests of the whole. Because when we act out of acceptance and love we can do what is right without being caught in conflict and anger. Our action is not influenced by fear, but rather, it comes from clear sightedness.

 This is how it is. This is how it is now. It doesn’t have to be any other way. To feel the present moment in your mind and in your body without fighting it. Is it possible?  

Uma